The royal elephant kraal
The Royal Elephant Kraal and village is home to over 90 elephant. One of the unique aspects of situating the elephant at the world heritage listed Royal Elephant Kraal is the link to history. For hundreds of years, the Kings of Thailand would attend the Royal Elephant Round Up and choose the elephant that would work and live alongside the Thai people and help build Thailand into the country it is today. Today, the Royal Elephant Kraal relives these centuries old traditions through re-enactments and observation of age-old customs and ceremonies. The training techniques adopted at the Royal Elephant Kraal are a marriage of traditional and modern methods. The owner, Mr Laithongrien Meepan has studied historical texts written by the Kings of Thailand about elephants. Reviving these rich traditions raises the status of the mahout and elephant. It is a unique demonstration of the skills the mahouts.
Activities
Our elephants are involved in a large variety of activities. This gives them and their mahouts the opportunity to travel, meet new people and to teach them about elephants. You can participate in these activities and be a part of them instead of just one of the crowd marvelling as their awesome presence. Please see the right column for more information and photos of some of the activities the elephants have participated in, and that you can be a part of too.